"DEMONIC MINI-MONKEYS!" "Well then bug 2 people to send me $10, then
you can be a magical girl." Both of these statements were made by me tonight in conversations, and both,
oddly enough, had sensible context to them. In fact, they were even on the same subject, and if you think
hard enough, you might even be able to figure out what it is. The $10 thing should be a big hint. Oh,
and hey, if you took that hint, that person would get to be a magical girl! Anyway, enough randomness
from mee, have some randomness from Sephiruss instead.

Sephiruss: Hey RPGamers out there, sephiruss here. I just want to
take a moment to say thanks to Goog and the rest of
the staff of RPGamer.com for doing such an excellent
job. RPGs are a rather large part of my life and I
really appreciate the hard work they do in maintaining
the best website on the net. Now I'll tell a little
about myself (the important parts). My favorite RPGs
are Chrono Trigger, FFVI-VIII, and the Lunar games. My
favorite anime is Cowboy Bebop, and I play guitar...I
think that pretty well sums up the important parts of life.

1. my friend told me that they are going to stop making PS2 games this summer. i don't believe him. do you have any idea what he's talking about?

2. do you know if square is ever going to release a sequel to final fantasy tactics? it is a great game and the reason i bought my playstation. the recent re-release got me hopeful.

Sephiruss:
1. Right....um...your friend...how can I say this
nicely? Oh, yes, your friend is seriously misinformed.
Well, I guess there is one way that PS2 games would
cease production, that being the end of the world (I'm
hoping against that personally).

2. As much as I would love a true sequel to FFT,
I'm going to go out on a limb here and say that it
isn't going to happen. If you're wanting some tactical
RPG fun, go play some of the Ogre Battle series,
Hoshigami, or Saiyuki. Though I haven't Saiyuki yet, a
certain very reliable Slime seems to only have nice
things to say about it.

Googleshng:
Technically this letter was sent to me yesterday, but I didn't print it then, because I wouldn't have
been able to avoid ranting and raving about how I had just answered that FFT2 thing the day before.
Remember kids: If you want me to make a really funny face, just ask a question the answer to which is
just a little above the mailto link. Anyway though, no sudden ceasure of PS2 game production, and no
FFT2.

¥¥¥¥¥TITLE2¥¥¥¥¥

hello
i think this could be a ffx spoiler,
just a quick statement
if all the Ronso's were killed by seymour,
then how the heck is there still a ronso blitz ball team?!?
~niimaru

Sephiruss:
Well, the luckily for the Ronso blitzball team,
Seymour's attack on Mt. Gagazet happened while the
blitzball team was in Luca playing blitzball (or at
least that's what I assume the situation was).
Besides, you can go back to Mt. Gagazet and there are
still a few Ronso people running around, Seymour
apparently missed a few.

Googleshng:
It's times like this where I have to chuckle at how it actually COSTS me money to do this job. (Read:
still can't afford a PS2)

The origins of TRPGs

Heya,

I have a question, a friend and I are arguing about SF and atlusÕ TRPG series. HeÕs trying to say that FFT( and therefore Tactics Ogre, Kartia and Hoshigami) are all rip offs of SF, now IÕve been looking around, and found dates, and screen shots, and movies and what not, and so far IÕve seen that only SF3 is a similar TRPG to any of those. But it came out after those. Am I missing something?

-Nysomin

Sephiruss:
Well, I haven't played the Shining Force games, but
according to the Shining Force page on this website,
"Shining Force created the strategy RPG genre as the
first major North American title of its kind." But,
Ogre Battle was released in the same year as Shining
Force (in North America), so I don't think that it's a
case of one copying the other, more than likely both
were in development at the same time and one got
finished before the other. That isn't to say, however,
that games like Kartia, FFT, and Hoshigami didn't
borrow elements from the SF games. Hopefully Goog has
played Shining Force and can shed more light on the
subject.

Googleshng:
It's so very rare that I get to say this, so excuse my excitement but...

EVERYONE'S WRONG!

Nysomin here is wrong in his deduction that Shining Force 1 and 2 are in any way less like other TRPGs
than Shining Force 3 is. The only real differences between Shining Force 3 and the first two are that
it has the whole 3 Chapter gimmick (or as it's better known in America, the cause for swearing a blue
streak), and polygonal graphics. Odd fact: The polygonal graphics make it look much much worse than the
first two. This is the same team that made Golden Sun. When you attack, it switches to the same sort
of view, but with, believe it or not, bigger more detailed characters.

Sephiruss and Nyosomin's friend are both wrong in calling Shining Force the first TRPG ever. That would
be Fire Emblem. By the way, the number of GENRES of game created by Nintendo by my count is 4.5, and considering
how 3.5 of those were created by Shigeru Miyamoto, and how that's roughly the number of other companies
that have ever even coughed up ONE, it's a rather freaky statistic.

Nyosomin's friend is also wrong in his use of the term "rip off". When two games are in the same genre,
that doesn't make one a rip-off. By that logic, some where around 99% of all things of any kind in the
world would be rip-offs. It's particularly bad to talk about TRPGs that way, because I can't think of
any two TRPGs which aren't different enough that they require a totally different kind of strategy to
be successful, except of course for a few sequels.

Finally, I am wrong evidently, because I could have sworn there was at LEAST a year between Shining Force
and Ogre Battle. Speaking of which, Ogre Battle is really a mix between an RPG and an RTS game than the
traditional mix of an RPG with a turn based strategy game, which honestly gives it it's own little subcategory
of RPG.

Quickies

The Last Laugh:

Sephiruss: Well, that was interesting. Before I say goodbye for
the week, I'd like to first say hi to my nto buddies,
'e' to the left! OK, that being said, see ya next
Friday I guess. Enjoy the weekend everyone.

Google: ... what the heck? I'm sure I fired off more questions than THAT...

If the magical mail hoarding demons cough it up between now and uh... later, I'll stick the lost ones
in, if not, I'll have to dig'em out of the trash and answer them elsewhere. Anyway though, weekend, Chesh,
me posting a rant...

OH YEAH! When I post said rant, please read it, so as to reduce the odds of me becoming Evil Incarnate
overnight. That's not the sort of thing I'm fond of doing you see.

Googleshng "DEMONIC MINI-MONKEYS!" @rpgamer.com
See, it wouldn't be the fun kill puppies with a thought sort of Evil Incarnate, it'd be the icky deny
the world cool cartoons kind.